The U.S. military, as well as military forces in other countries, has trained soldiers for many years with a multiple integrated laser engagement system (MILES). One aspect of MILES involves a small arms laser transmitter (SAT), such as a gallium arsenide laser transmitter, which is affixed to the barrel of a small arms weapon or a machine gun. The soldier pulls the trigger of his or her weapon to fire a blank or blanks to simulate the firing of an actual round or multiple rounds. Each soldier is fitted with laser sensitive optical detectors on his or her helmet and on a body harness adapted to detect an infrared laser “bullet” hit. A semiconductor laser diode in the SAT is energized to emit an infrared laser beam toward the target in the conventional sights of the weapon. The infrared laser beam is encoded with the solder's player identification code. Optionally each soldier wears a digital player control unit that tells the player whether he or she has suffered a particular type of casualty or had a near miss, the time of the event and the identity of the shooter.
The MILES devices allow for realistic force-on-force training (simulation) of military forces. MILES systems work very effectively with direct fire weapons. However, the training of weapons with indirect fire ballistics, such as modern grenade weapons, including but not limited to, MK19, MK47, M203, M79, M320, and MK13 grenade launchers, is not compatible with MILES systems.
The launching of grenades or other projectiles in a combat situation is an important art of military operations. There has been a definite need to provide more effective training for automatic or hand-held grenade launchers.